14 TV GUIDE TUESDAY JULY 11 2017 Monk ready for latest reality show adventure

Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude.

Sophie Monk testing her comfort zone. IT IS a seven day a week oper- partners have included Holly- Handmaid’s Tale ation for Sophie Monk shoot- wood actor Sam Worthington, ing The Bachelorette. American singer Benji Mad- The singer, radio and tele- den and footballer Eric Grothe vision host was spotted shoot- Jr. ing the Channel Ten reality On The Bachelorette more show in Double Bay last week. than 15 single blokes are vying Dressed casually in jeans, a for her attention with the hope superb watching white T-shirt and leather jack- of winning her heart. et, there was no sight of poss- Monk has been spotted out ible suitors as the 37-year-old and about in Sydney on several Wenlei Ma households of important men closely it mirrors our own. selves slipping into a Gilead- did her thing in front of the dates with handsome men, in- in Gilead where they function When women’s bank accounts like regime. It’s that this is camera. cluding a picnic at Spotless AUSTRALIANS can finally as unwilling surrogates and en- were frozen, June and Moira already the reality for many “This is different from any- Stadium and another in the watch the buzzy series the rest dure monthly rape in a bizarre (Samira Wiley) were in a cafe women around the world. thing I’ve ever done before,” Royal National Park near Cro- of the world has been obsess- “ceremony” involving the trying to pay $3.50 for coffee Atwood said that when she Monk recently said. nulla. ing over. Commander and his wife. on her credit card. wrote the book she only in- “I’m so out of my comfort She is about half way So now you can understand The Bible-thumping Gile- These scenes, of how the cluded practices that had ei- zone. This is not a reality show, through filming the reality se- what your mate in London, Los adian leaders’ rule is absolute, autocrats seized power, are ther already happened in it’s real life. I’m facing a lot of ries that will air later in the Angeles or Vancouver has any form of dissent is outlawed chilling in its familiarity — of history or was still happening my fears and learning a lot year following Matty John- been banging on about. and all undesirables — includ- the apathy when civil rights — she didn’t imagine this in about myself. son’s stint as The Bachelor. Yes, it is that good. ing homosexuals, intellectuals were stripped back in the name some kind of feverish dystopi- “This is the most bizarre “I’m nervous and excited for The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t and non-Christians — are ei- of “fighting terrorists”. an nightmare. It’s the sexual and fun experience I’ve ever the road ahead,” Monk said. just an “important” and pres- ther “sent to the colonies” or Canadian Atwood wrote repression that occurred dur- had.” “I’ve already met some awe- tigious series, it’s also can’t- executed with their bodies left the book in the mid-1980s dur- ing the US’s puritanical roots Monk has been famously some guys and I can’t wait to tear-away TV. But you to hang over the city walls. ing the Reagan era and the or the paranoia present in for- unlucky in love. Her former see what happens.” probably shouldn’t binge the Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a dying days of the Soviet Union. mer Eastern Bloc countries whole season in one sitting, handmaid in Commander There was a lot of chatter under Soviet rule. unless you want to end up hat- Fred Waterford’s house. Be- around a few months ago What The Handmaid’s Tale ing the world. fore the takeover, her name when The Handmaid’s Tale de- portrays is the kind of thing New panel show slammed Based on Margaret was June and she was married buted overseas about how, in that is still perpetuated in theo- Atwood’s seminal 1985 novel, to a kind man named Luke the three decades since, cratic Saudi Arabia, a trading CHANNEL Seven’s new panel sode, the panellists also take which already had a forget- with whom she had a daughter women’s rights have either and diplomatic partner of Aus- show has been slammed by part in a number of different table film adaptation in 1990, who was torn from her arms as stagnated or declined. tralia and an ally to the US, or viewers as an “unfunny” ver- games. In a segment called the 10-episode first season will her family tried to flee to the It’s easy to make a connec- in parts of the Middle East sion of Network Ten’s Have Fake It ‘Til You Make It, one drop in its entirety on SBS On still-free Canada. tion between the current poli- controlled by Islamic State and You Been Paying Attention. team must read the body lan- Demand on Thursday and Moss was an MVP from her tical climate and an increase in the Taliban. Behave Yourself, which pre- guage of the rest of the panel there are no plans yet to broad- Mad Men run and has only re- anti-women rhetoric espoused While that’s all serious and miered last week, is a comedy who have large goldfish bowls cast it on linear TV so you bet- inforced her position as a su- by some men in the public definite takeaways from The game show hosted by Darren lowered over their heads that ter get streaming. perlative performer with sphere, hate speech that they Handmaid’s Tale, don’t let the McMullen and features a ro- are filled with a variety of This adaptation is one of the starring turns in Top of the may not have been embold- social lessons overshadow tating line-up of six celebrity smells. best things you’ll see on screen Lake, The One I Love, High-Rise ened to express so freely only a what is an excellent piece of panellists which included One of those smells is what this year thanks to first-rate and the Palme d’Or winning few years ago. television. It’s stunningly craft- Shane Warne, Lawrence Darren McMullen referred to writing, outstanding perform- The Square. The Handmaid’s And it’s easy to make a con- ed with its bright and beautiful Mooney, Kate Langbroek and as “bottled flatulence” and the ances and gorgeous cinema- Tale is another notch in her nection between the erosion of aesthetic only underscoring Ben Mingay in its first episode. four panellists inside the fish- tography. considerable belt. women’s rights in the US with the darkness at play. Every Whereas Have You Been bowls must attempt to keep a Above all, it’s a story that is Her ability to convey the the rise of Donald Trump — frame is visual art and the at- Paying Attention quizzes straight face, while the team both compelling and genuinely full range of emotions on her though the misogyny under tention to detail is laudable. panellists about topical news playing try to work out who is terrifying. In a reality not too face without speaking — dia- the guise of paternalistic pro- There is appalling sexual events, Behave Yourself’s ques- receiving the foul smell. far from our own, the United logue is kept to a minimum in tection on display in The Hand- and general violence in The tions are all about irrational Another game on last States has become the totali- Gilead lest you betray yourself maid’s Tale is more in keeping Handmaid’s Tale, done in the human behaviour. night’s episode saw Kate Lang- tarian government of Gilead, a with independent thought — is with US Vice-President Mike name of some god, and the se- For example, some of the broek and Shane Warne stand- dystopian society where second-to-none. Meanwhile, Pence’s philosophy on gender ries doesn’t sugar-coat any- questions included, “What’s ing with their backs facing a women have been stripped of her wry voice-over reveals her relations. The distinct blood thing. the subject most adults have ball machine that fired tennis all rights and stratified into inner monologue and adds red costumes from the show It is shocking. It is horrify- difficulty discussing with balls at them. “needs-based” roles. some necessary levity to an have been used by protesting ing. And it’s unmissable TV. friends — Death or Finances?” 510,000 viewers tuned in for The handmaids are a class otherwise heavy text. activists in Washington DC. All 10 episodes of The and, “What do 44 per cent of the debut episode but some of fertile women in a society The flashbacks to June’s life But what’s scariest about Handmaid’s Tale season one people admit telling someone weren’t impressed at all and where pregnancies and “from before” are some of the The Handmaid’s Tale is not available to stream on SBS they’ve just met?” were scathing in their reviews healthy live births are rare. The most effective aspects of the how easily Americans or even On Demand from Thursday, During the hour-long epi- on social media. handmaids are “posted” to the series, in part because of how Australians could find them- July 6.

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